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After I laid out the letters' design, I started to establish a middle creek line on each of the letter's parts.
To cut this creek you can use a marking knife, a chisel, a carver's knife or a simple utility knife.
I then cut side lines (like branches in a tree) that forked out of the mid-line towards the corners of the letters.
Then I started chiseling from the sides towards the middle – creating a "V" shape arroyo. This arroyo gets deeper and deeper as you work the letter. You will need to re-establish the middle (creek) line from time to time.
Check out this Youtube clip to get a sense of how to carve letters in wood. By the way, this clip will show you that you can successfully carve many of the letters using one size of a bench chisel 3/4"…. that is all you'll need.
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Zrz0r2Nz4:550:0]Once you get a grip of the basic technique of carving Latin letters, you'll be able to adopt that knowledge to carve in almost any other language.
I will show the finished piece on my next blog entry….
